Method and communication network for providing announcements in preferred language while roaming

ABSTRACT

Communication network and method for providing communication facilities for a plurality of users. The communication network comprises an announcement generating element ( 14 ) for sending network related messages to any of the users. A further network element is connected to the announcement generating element, the further network element being arranged for determining a preferred language for a specific user ( 10 ) of the plurality of users, and sending network related messages to the specific user ( 10 ) in the preferred language.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to providing network messages in a user'shome language while roaming. In particular, the present inventionrelates to a method for providing network related messages in acommunication network such as a mobile telephony network, thecommunication network being arranged to provide communication facilitiesfor a plurality of (mobile) users. Furthermore, the present inventionrelates to a communication network for providing communicationfacilities for a plurality of (mobile) users.

PRIOR ART

In known telecommunication systems, network messages or announcementsare provided in the local language of the network. Some users of thenetwork may not be able to understand these messages. This is especiallythe case for roaming users from other networks. As a result, a user willredial and hear the same announcement, or the user will try andassociate with another network available in that area. In both cases,revenue is lost for the operator of the network.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention seeks to provide a method that will allow a userof a terminal in a mobile network to understand any network relatedmessages, and as a result will improve the efficiency of use of thenetwork.

According to the present invention, a method according to the preambledefined above is provided, in which the method comprises determining apreferred language for a specific user, and sending network relatedmessages to the specific user in the preferred language. By making thelanguage of the network messages dependent on a specific user, theproblem as discussed above may be eliminated. Network related messagesmay include, but are not limited to, network welcome messages, warningmessages (‘The number you have dialed is busy, please try later’), orvoicemail messages ‘This is the voicemail of John, please speak afterthe beep’). The plurality of users may comprise a first group of usersand a second group of roaming users. The present invention is especiallyuseful for a roaming user, i.e. a user with a mobile terminal being usedin the coverage area of a (visited) network different from its ownassociated network. However, also users of the network for who the(standard) language of the network is not their mother tongue maybenefit from this invention.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the preferred language isdetermined based on data available in the communication network. Thisallows to automatically determine the desired language of the user ofthe specific terminal, without any human intervention.

The preferred language may in a further embodiment of the presentinvention be determined on basis of an identification of the specificuser, such as a Mobile Subscriber ISDN (MSISDN) number or anInternational Mobile Subscriber Identification (IMSI). Theseidentification data are part of data being exchanged in a mobile networkwhen the specific terminal is associated with that network, and thusreadily available.

In a further embodiment, the preferred language is determined on basisof data received from a home network associated with the specificterminal, upon registration of the specific terminal in thecommunication network. In GSM networks, data is requested by a visitednetwork from the home network of the subscriber once the specificterminal associates with the visited network, and data concerning thepreferred language may be easily added to that data by the home network.

A preferred language indicator associated with the specific user may bestored in a local database of the communication network in a furtherembodiment. Thus, the preferred language of a specific user is known.The local database may be part of the HLR or Gateway Location Register(GLR) of the visited network. It may be stored in the local database forthe period of time in which the specific terminal is serviced by thevisited network, or alternatively, the period of time may extend longer,to enable a direct correct use of language when the specific terminalvisits at a later time.

In an even further embodiment, the present method may further comprisestoring the language indicator upon receiving a selection reply from thespecific terminal, e.g. as a reply to an SMS welcome message.Alternatively, a specific terminal may send an SMS message with anindication of the desired language to a dedicated number in the visitednetwork, or a call to a dedicated number for a specific language choicemay be made.

In a further aspect, the present invention relates to a communicationnetwork according to the preamble defined above, the communicationnetwork comprising an announcement generating element for sendingnetwork related messages to any of the plurality of users, and a furthernetwork element connected to the announcement generating element, thefurther network element being arranged for determining a preferredlanguage for a specific user of the plurality of users, and sendingnetwork related messages to the specific terminal in the preferredlanguage. In further embodiments, the communication network comprisesfurther network elements, such as a local database, in which one or morenetwork elements are arranged to execute the various method embodiments,as described in the dependent claims.

In an even further aspect, the present invention relates to a computerprogram product comprising computer executable code, which when loadedon a network element having a processor and associated memory elements,in which the network element is part of a communication network,provides the communication network with the functionality of one of thepresent method embodiments. The computer program product may be providedon a separate carrier, e.g. an optical disc or semiconductor memory, ormay be uploaded directly to the relevant network element(s).

SHORT DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The present invention will be discussed in more detail below, using anumber of exemplary embodiments, with reference to the attacheddrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 schematically shows part of a network according to an embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a graphical representation of data flows according to anembodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 3 schematically shows the interaction between a home network and avisited network according to a further embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

With reference to FIG. 1, a first embodiment of the present inventionwill be described. In FIG. 1, a roaming mobile station 10 is shown,which is located in the coverage area of a mobile communication network(Visited Public Land Mobile Network, VPLMN). Most of the time, themobile station 10 would be operated by a user in its own mobilecommunication network, or Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN). Themobile communication network comprises a mobile switching center (MSC)11 that is able to establish communication with the mobile station 10.Furthermore, the mobile communication network comprises a servicecontrol point (SCP 13), which is a platform for executing andcontrolling intelligent network (IN) services. A service switchingfunction (SSF) 12 is present, usually as a part of the MSC 11, forproviding a relay function between the MSC 11 and SCP 13 for INservices. Furthermore, an announcement generating device 14 is presentwhich may combine a number of functions, including an AnnouncementService Terminal, a Digital speech phrasing function and a Random accessmemory (AST-DR). The announcement generating device 14 may be part ofthe MSC 11, but may also be provided as a separate network unit, or aspart of another network unit. In this embodiment, also a languagedatabase 15 is present, in this case connected to the SCP 13.

According to embodiments of the present invention, when a user 10registers with a visited GSM network (VPLMN, e.g. in a foreign country),the network identifies the roaming subscriber 10 with the country codeof her MSISDN (Mobile Station ISDN). This is then used for the playingof the network-generated announcement in the subscriber's home language.When a subscriber re-registers in the network at a later visit, theinformation collected in the earlier visit is used to determine thesubscriber's preferred language.

Some of the typical network generated announcements are “please checkthe number you have dialled”, “the network is busy, please try later”.Network busy is also available as a standard tone but also as anannouncement. Also some networks play an announcement in the locallanguage, such as “you will now be connected to the voice mailbox of 06516 13 444; please leave a message after the beep”, or “Please wait,your call is being forwarded”. The local voicemail box may be arrangedto play the message “This is the voicemail box of family Smith, pleaseleave a message after the beep.”.

Linking this service to Call Completion type of applications, where theend-user does not need to call back but the network generates the call,can further enhance the user experience.

When call establishment in the MSC 11 fails, e.g. due to dialling anincorrect number, the B-number analysis in the MSC 11 generates afailure code. Based on the failure code, an IN service is triggered forthe roaming subscriber 10. The IN service then checks the language codeof the roaming subscriber 10 and plays the relevant announcement.Checking the language code of the subscriber 10 is done by querying thelanguage database 15, as described above.

The method and system embodiments of the present invention provide abetter network utilization, by preventing that a roaming subscriber 10receives the same announcement when the roaming subscriber 10 does notunderstand the first announcement and redials. This would result inutilization of network resources without revenue. Also, it is preventedthat a roaming subscriber 10 leaves the network for another networkhoping for a better, more understandable announcement.

In an embodiment of the present invention, error messages “in the callset up”, “during a call” and “at the end of a call” are used to triggeran IN service, e.g. in the form of a Route Select Failure (RSF) event orother failure code. The information from this message is used to definewhat the IN service will do, for example, what message to play. The callthat the inbound roaming subscriber (from mobile station 10)establishes, results in an ISDN User Part (ISUP) initial address message(IAM) 20 from the MSC 11. This message may result in an error message 21(ISUP Release message), e.g. Route Select Failure (RSF). The RSF messagemay occur inside the MSC 11 or outside the MSC 11, the latter case beingshown in FIG. 1. The MSC 11 now wants to play an announcement to thecalling subscriber 10, informing her that the call could not beestablished and that she should check the number and dial again. Sincethe calling subscriber 10 is recognized as an inbound roaming subscriber(based on her MSISDN or on her international mobile subscriber identity,IMSI), the MSC 11 uses a failure code that has the effect that the callis routed to the SSF 12 in the MSC 11. The SSF 12 could also be locatedoutside the MSC 11, i.e. in a switching service platform (SSP).

The SSF 12 triggers a special “inbound subscriber announcement service”in the SCP 13. The VPLMN operator operates this SCP 13. The protocol 22that is used between the SSF 12 and the SCP 13 may be CS1 (CapabilitySet 1, an industry standard protocol for IN services), CS1+(enhanced CS1), CAP (CAMEL application part, an industry standard for CAMELservices), or other types of network protocols, such as SIP (SessionInitiation Protocol). The Initial Detection Point (IDP) operation thatis sent from the SSF 12 to SCP 13 contains, amongst others, the MSISDNof the calling subscriber 10. The IDP should also contain an indicationof the error that occurred, so the SCP 13 knows which announcement toselect. Different error conditions in the MSC 11 may lead to differententries in the IN Service Trigger (IST) table in the SSF 12, anddifferent entries in this table may have different Service Key values.Hence, the Service Key value in Initial DP serves as an indication ofthe error that occurred.

The SCP 13 queries the preferred language database 15 to get anindication of the language for this subscriber 10. Hereto, the SCP 13provides the MSISDN (as received in Initial DP) to the database 15. Inone embodiment, the database 15 uses the MSISDN as search key to selectthe language that is associated with this subscriber 10. The database 15then returns a language code to the SCP 13. The SCP 13 uses the languagecode, together with the error indication in Initial DP, to select theannouncement that shall be played. The playing of the announcement isinstructed to the SSF 12 by means of existing CAP/CS1/CS1+operations 22,such as Connect To Resource and Play Announcement.

If a subscriber 10 has not indicated a preferred language, then adefault language is used, based on the leading digits of her MSISDN.This default language table may be configured in the language database15 or in the Service Logic in the SCP 13. The following table containsan example of mapping between MSISDN leading digits and language. Notethat the country indication is for background information only, it neednot be provisioned in the present system.

MSISDN leading digits Country Language 31 Netherlands Dutch 44 UnitedKingdom English 91 98 200 India English 91 98 140 India Hindi . . . . .. . . .

The table contains data that is statically configured for the caseswhere there is a fixed relation between country code plus network codeand language. India does not have number portability, hence the fixedrelationship.

In FIG. 2 the steps are shown for an embodiment in which an inboundroaming subscriber 10 may be prompted to select a preferred language.

The “Location Update” trigger 25 in FIG. 2 reflects the MobileApplication Part (MAP) signalling between the home location register(HLR) in the HPLMN and the visited MSC (VMSC) in the VPLMN. The specificMAP message, Insert Subscriber Data, is intercepted by a signallingtransfer point (STP) and is used to generate the trigger 25 to thelanguage preference database 15. The trigger 25 signals to said database15 that a particular subscriber 10, identified with IMSI or MSISDN, isregistered in the visited network VPLMN. Said database 15 uses thissignal to update its internal information, without any need to accessthe HPLMN associated with the roaming subscriber 10.

When the VPLMN operator of the inbound roaming subscriber 10 sends awelcome SMS 26, the SMS may include the option to dial a (toll-free)number to select the language. This option is in this embodimentincluded in the welcome SMS only for subscribers from countries withmultiple languages, e.g. Canada, Belgium, and China etc. Howeversubscribers from other countries like UK, Germany etc. do have thepossibility to select other languages also. The welcome SMS 26 includesthe languages that are offered to that subscriber. The welcome SMS 26may have the form ‘Welcome to AIS in Thailand, . . . , Call 0800-444 forEnglish announcements or 0800-445 for French announcements (toll free)’,and is in this form intended for a Canadian inbound roaming subscriber10.

This embodiment of the present invention would in fact allow theCanadian subscriber 10 to dial other (toll-free) numbers, e.g. 0800-446to select Spanish. However, since English and French are the mainlanguages for this subscriber 10, there is no need to mention Spanish inthe SMS. However, this embodiment facilitates that any inbound roamingsubscriber 10 dials at any moment 0800-446 or any of the otherdesignated language selection numbers, to select her preferred language.A Dutch subscriber from English origin may therefore dial 0800-444, eventhough that wasn't prompted in the welcome SMS 26. This option to selectlanguage at any moment should be advertised in a suitable and adequatemanner.

When a subscriber dials 0800-444 (or any of the other designatedlanguage selection numbers), as indicated by numeral 27, the serving MSC11 triggers an IN service that takes care of setting the language in thedatabase 15. The triggering of said IN service is e.g. done inaccordance with “Serving network based dialed services”, as specified inCAMEL Phase 3. Alternatively, a proprietary triggering method is used.This may be accomplished using CS1/CS1+/CAP signalling 22 between MSC 11and SCP 13 as described in relation to the above embodiment, and furthersignalling 28 from SCP 13 to language database 15. Also other triggeringmethods may be used, e.g. using a different network protocol such asSIP.

When a subscriber 10 detaches from the MSC 11 and deregisters from theVPLMN (i.e. does not register with another MSC 11 in that VPLMN), thedatabase 15 may retain the subscriber language indicator. When thesubscriber 10 re-enters the country, the preferred language is alreadyknown. This has the following advantages:

The VPLMN does not need to re-prompt the subscriber 10, when sending awelcome SMS 26, to select her language;

A next welcome SMS 26 may be sent in the preferred language;

A next welcome SMS 26 may read “welcome back to AIS in Thailand”.

When a subscriber 10 has not re-registered in the network for a longtime e.g. a period of 12 or 24 months, her data will be purged from thelanguage database 15.

FIG. 3 reflects an embodiment of the concept of a language indicator,shown in schematic form. The language indicator is part of thesubscriber's profile in the HLR 30 of the HPLMN. When the subscriberregisters in an MSC/Visitor Location Register (VLR) 11, the HLR 30 sendsa sub-set of the subscription data to that MSC/VLR 11. The subscriptiondata that is sent to MSC/VLR 11 includes the language indicator. Thisindicator may be used for two purposes:

It is retained in the MSC 11, as part of the subscription settings. TheMSC 11 may use the indicator to select the preferred language whenplaying announcements.

MAP signalling between HLR 30 and VLR 11 normally passes through aSignaling Transfer Point (STP) 16 in the VPLMN (indicated by referencenumeral 31 and 32, respectively). The STP 16 may send a notification 33to the language database 15. The notification includes, as a minimum, asubscriber identification such as IMSI or MSISDN, and the languageindicator. The language database 15 stores this indicator.

This concept requires that the language code is internationallystandardised, e.g. by 3GPP or by the ITU-T.

The language indicator may be set in the language database 15 by thefollowing stimuli alternatives:

If the STP 16 intercepts a MAP ISD message 31, it sends a notification33 to the language database 15. If the MAP ISD message 31 does notinclude the language indicator (originating from the HLR 30), thelanguage database 15 uses the subscriber's IMSI or MSISDN to set thepreferred language.

If the STP 16 sends a notification 33 to the language database 15 asdescribed above, and the notification 33 contains the languageindicator, retrieved from the MAP ISD message 31, then the languagedatabase 15 uses this language indicator to set the preferred language.The language identified by the language indicator takes precedence overthe language that is derived from the subscriber's IMSI or MSISDN.

If the language database 15 receives at any moment an SMS message fromthe subscriber 10 (via MSC 11), indicating that her preferred languageis e.g. English (e.g. sending an SMS ‘English’ to a dedicated SMS number888), then the language database 15 uses that indication to set thepreferred language. The indication received by SMS takes precedence overboth the language indication received from HLR 30 and the language thatis derived from the subscriber's IMSI or MSISDN. It shall be noted thatin order to take full advantage of this embodiment, the SMS should behandled in the VPLMN as a local SMS (e.g. using a predetermined numberrange), in order to prevent the SMS to be sent to the regular SMSC ofthe HPLMN.

It may occur that the HPLMN operator has a limited set of availablelanguage settings in the HLR 30. E.g. a German operator allows forGerman, French, English and Spanish as available preferred languages inthe HLR 30. When an Italian subscriber 10 holding a German subscriptionroams in Italy, the HLR 30 may send e.g. German as preferred language.The subscriber 10 may, however, override the setting in the languagedatabase 15 in Italy by sending an SMS indicating “Italian”.

The present invention has been described above with reference to anumber of exemplary embodiments. For the person skilled in the art itwill be apparent that various modifications or alternatives may beprovided to the elements and steps described. These are part of thescope of this invention, as defined in the appended claims. E.g. variousfunctions in the embodiments above have been described as being executedby a particular element of the mobile communication network. It will beapparent that these functions may also be provided in other networkelements, such as dedicated network elements. Furthermore, the functionsof the present invention may be provided to the network elementsmentioned in the form of computer executable code. The network elementscomprise a processor and associated memory elements, as known in theart. When the computer executable code is loaded on the network elementthe desired functionality is provided to the associated network by thenetwork element in operation. Also, it can be envisaged that the presentinvention is applied in communication networks other than public landmobile networks, e.g. in public switched telephony networks or inproprietary radio communication networks.

The invention claimed is:
 1. In a telecommunications network comprisinga Mobile Switching Center (MSC) having an Intelligent Network (IN)Service Switching Function (SSF) and an IN Service Control Point (SCP)for controlling an Intelligent Network (IN) service, a method ofproviding a roaming subscriber messages in the roaming subscriber's homelanguage, the method comprising: the MSC determining that the subscriberis inbound and roaming and upon detecting that an error announcement isto be played for the roaming subscriber, triggering the SSF with anerror indication, wherein the MSC detects that the error announcement isto be played in response to a call establishment failure in the MSC; theSSF sending an IN Initial Detection Point (IDP) operation to the SCP,the IDP including an indication of the error and an indication of thelanguage for the roaming subscriber; and the SCP using the indication ofthe language and the indication of the error to select the announcementfrom a language database to be played to the roaming subscriber.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the indicator of the language for the roamingsubscriber is determined by: data received from a home networkassociated with the roaming subscriber's terminal, a language indicatorassociated with the roaming subscriber and stored in a local database,or a selection by the roaming subscriber of a language from a list oflanguages presented by the telecommunications network.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein there is no specific indicator of language preferenceprovided and the language for the roaming subscriber is determined fromthe roaming subscriber's Mobile Subscriber ISDN (MSISDN) received fromthe SSF in the IDP or, the roaming subscriber's International MobileSubscriber Identification (IMSI).
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein theroaming subscriber sends an SMS to a specific number, the MSC forwardingthe SMS to the IN service, for selecting a preferred language, thelanguage preference being stored in the visited network.
 5. The methodof claim 4, the stored language preference being made available uponsubsequent visits by the roaming subscriber.
 6. The method of claim 5,wherein a Signaling Transfer Point (STP) intercepts a response, InsertSubscriber Data, to a Mobile Application Part (MAP) signaling betweenthe roaming subscriber's HLR and the visited MSC, the Insert SubscriberData being used to generate a trigger to the language database that theroaming subscriber is registered in the visited network, the languagedatabase automatically being updated with respect to the roamingsubscriber.
 7. The method of claim 4, wherein a Signaling Transfer Point(STP) intercepts a response, Insert Subscriber Data, to a MobileApplication Part (MAP) signaling between the roaming subscriber's HLRand the visited MSC, the Insert Subscriber Data being used to generate atrigger to the language database that the roaming subscriber isregistered in the visited network, the language database automaticallybeing updated with respect to the roaming subscriber.
 8. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the MSC triggers the SSF with the error indication byproviding to the SSF a failure code corresponding to a call failure, andwherein the method further comprises the SSF selecting from a table,based on the failure code provided by the MSC, the indication of theerror for inclusion in the IDP operation sent to the SCP.
 9. A MobileSwitching Center (MSC) for providing a roaming subscriber messages inthe roaming subscriber's home language, the MSC having an IntelligentNetwork (IN) Service Switching Function (SSF) and an IN Service ControlPoint (SCP) for controlling an Intelligent Network (IN) service, the MSCcomprising: determination means for determining that the subscriber isinbound and roaming and upon detecting that an error announcement is tobe played for the roaming subscriber, triggering the SSF with an errorindication, wherein the determination means detects that the errorannouncement is to be played in response to a call establishment failurein the MSC; transmission means for the SSF sending an Initial DetectionPoint (IDP) operation to the SCP, the IDP including an indication of theerror and an indication of the language for the roaming subscriber; andselection means for the SCP using the indication of the language and theindication of the error to select the announcement from a languagedatabase to be played to the roaming subscriber.
 10. The MSC of claim 9,wherein the indicator of the language for the roaming subscriber isdetermined by data received from a home network associated with theroaming subscriber's terminal, a language indicator associated with theroaming subscriber stored in a local database, or a selection of thelanguage from a list of languages presented by the telecommunicationsnetwork.
 11. The method of claim 10, the stored language preferencebeing made available upon subsequent visits by the roaming subscriber.12. The MSC of claim 9, wherein there is no specific indicator oflanguage preference and the language for the roaming subscriber isdetermined from the roaming subscriber's Mobile Subscriber ISDN (MSISDN)received from the SSF in the IDP or the roaming subscriber'sInternational Mobile Subscriber Identification (IMSI).
 13. The MSC ofclaim 9, wherein the roaming subscriber sends an SMS to a specificnumber, the MSC forwarding the SMS to the IN service, for selecting apreferred language, the language preference being stored in the visitednetwork.